Altered functioning of the glutamate system during critical periods of development is believed to play a role in various neurodevelopmental disorders, such as schizophrenia. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response is deficient in people with schizophrenia. This study investigated ...

Activity in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system is linked to responses to novelty, reward, and drug-seeking behaviours. Glutamate signaling, through kainate receptors, has been shown to modulate dopamine release in this pathway. In the present study, a low, overtly non-convulsive dose of the kaina...

Schizophrenia is a debilitating neurological disorder characterized by positive, negative, cognitive and/or emotional symptoms. Decreased social interaction is a common negative symptom. Social interaction can be readily observed in rats and is therefore an ideal target behaviour when evaluating an ...

To gather information on the benefits of computer-assisted instruction and other special learning interventions for exceptional children, this study investigated the performance of 12 children (aged 6-12 yrs) with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) on a computerized immediate feedback t...

Schizophrenia is a devastating neurological disorder that affects approximately 1% of the
population and is characterized by positive, negative, and/or cognitive symptoms.
Positive symptoms are associated with increased glutamate (Glu) and/or dopamine (DA)
signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) w...

Cumulative behavioural toxicity was measured in groups of male and female rat pups (n=6/sex) at different stages of postnatal development. Dose-response curves (DRCs) for toxicity produced by domoic acid (DOM) were generated using animals on postnatal days (PND) 0, 5, 14, and 22, using a behavioural...

Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the acoustic startle response is a measure of sensory motor gating, and is affected in various neuropsychiatric disorders. Although PPI has been used extensively to study both the neural effects of such conditions, as well as in the search for animal models, a number of ...

Changes in glutamatergic signalling during neonatal development are known to result in long-lasting changes in brain function. Previous work in our laboratory has shown that systemic administration of very low (subconvulsive) doses of the kainate receptor agonist, domoic acid, during the second post...

Epilepsy research relies heavily on animal models that mimic some, or all, of the clinical symptoms observed. We have previously described a new developmental rat model of epilepsy that demonstrates both behavioural seizures and changes in hippocampal morphology. In the current study we investigated...

We have previously reported that serial systemic injections of low-dose (subconvulsive) domoic acid (DOM) during early postnatal development produces changes in both behavior and hippocampal cytoarchitecture in aged rats (17 months) that are similar to those seen in existing animal models of tempora...

In this study, neonatal rats were chronically exposed to low, non-convulsive doses of the kainate receptor agonist domoic acid (DOM), or saline. Later, as adolescents, all animals were tested in a nicotine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. As expected, a nicotine-induced CPP was e...

It is well established that the developing brain is a highly dynamic environment that is susceptible to toxicity produced by a number of pharmacological, chemical and environmental insults. We report herein on permanent behavioural and morphological changes produced by exposing newborn rats to very ...

While it is known that glutamate is critical to CNS development and function, less is known about the role of kainate receptors, a subclass of ionotropic glutamate receptors, during ontogeny. This is especially true with respect to the emergence and expression of behaviour. It is also known that the...